Hands up, who has said "my dog has good recall, unless (insert distraction here) is around"

So how do we combat that? We gotta practice our recall around that distraction.

For Cookie dogs chasing balls from a ball launcher is her kryptonite. So one of our training goals is to work on that. I pop her on a longline, go to a place where I know there will likely be dogs with toys, or arrange to meet up with a friend who has a dog that likes to play fetch and we practice.

I reward all engagement from Cookie and when she looks at the dog chasing a ballI recall her.

Things to note:

• we are at a distance where Cookie can do this, if she acts like she can't hear me or takes a very long time to recall, then we are too close
• the long line prevents her rushing off and being able to self reward herself
• if she can't hear me/recall I can reel her in until she voluntarily comes the rest of the way

For Cookie I throw the food reward for her to find. The reason being because what she wants is to chase that thing over there, so instead I'm offering her an opportunity to chase the food instead and still meet that urge of hers.

Practicing this consistently will mean in time, her default behaviour will be when she sees a dog chasing a ball, she runs back to me. The environment can become the recall cue.

What distraction is your dogs kryptonite?